Letter to the Editor: Why I’m Against My Chinese Peers at UCSD

This letter is a response to “Chinese student organizations denounce Dalai Lama as commencement speaker.”

I am a Chinese student from the University of Georgia. Here is a comment (in English) and a personal statement (in Chinese, I’m sure you have some people who read Chinese) which I would like to share with The Triton.

As one of the “countless Chinese students in the U.S.”, despite studying in another school, I very much like the idea of having His Holiness the Dalai Lama to speak on such a special occasion and I feel insulted by being forcibly represented by the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) which states that “our” feelings have been hurt. Here are a few points:

1) It is intolerant of the CSSA to demand the university cancel an apolitical spiritual speech by a speaker whose politics they dislike.

2) In disparaging this globally-revered sage, they lack the fundamental respect for the culture and religion of the Tibetan people.

3) It would be His Holiness’s right to speak freely and truthfully on his people’s plight, including China’s ongoing demolition of the Larung Gar Academy and its recent arrest of Tashi Wangchuk, an educator of the Tibetan language.

4) It was the ruling Communist Party that compromised the territorial integrity of China by establishing a Soviet satellite state during the Japanese invasion and splitting the country across the Taiwan Strait through a bloody rebellion.

5) The Communist regime, which my Chinese peers in your university are actually defending, is no synonym for the motherland of the Tibetans and Chinese whose lost their beloved ones in the barbarian air raid on the Byams-chen-chos-skor-gling Temple in 1956 and the murderous bloodbath of Beijing streets in 1989.

6) My experience of being a young dissident who narrowly escaped prison keeps on reminding me how fortunate I am now to live in America and have the freedom to speak without fears.

7) The Communist regime is kidnapping, torturing and imprisoning less fortunate millennial dissidents at home, including my ethnic Korean friend Kwon Pyong, an Iowa State University alumni, who is waiting behind bars for an imminent trial on his outspoken opposition to Communism.

8) The CSSA, a self-proclaimed apolitical independent student body, admits on Chinese social media that it reports to a foreign consulate and follows its instructions, violating the law and school rules.

9) Their attempt to curb free speech on an American campus indicates that the evil hand of Communist censorship has reached us by the agency of patriotic Chinese students.

关于被UCSD中国学生会强行代表的个人声明

古懿 (佐治亚大学)

UCSD中国学生会发表声明称，该校邀请达赖喇嘛尊者演讲”伤害了无数在美中国留学生的感情”。作为并非该校学生但被强行代表的”无数中国留学生”的一员，我声明UCSD的决定没有伤害我的感情，恰恰相反，我认为邀请一位具有世界声望的宗教领袖前来讨论生命和人性，这是一个明智的决定。

中国学生会声称达赖尊者的访问不符合学校尊重文化多样性和各民族信仰的宗旨。然而，中国学生会对藏传佛教及其领袖的诋毁，恰恰说明他们自己不尊重一种伟大文化和藏民族的信仰。中共正在拆除五明佛学院，逮捕了藏文推广者扎西文色，即使尊者除了探讨文化和哲学课题，同时也向世界讲述这些真相，也是他的言论自由。

中国学生会”誓死捍卫祖国的完整”，然而他们捍卫的只是中共政权的完整。 中共曾趁日军入侵的时机在瑞金成立以俄文音译词命名的割据政权。在百废待兴的战后又发动内战分裂了中国。那个曾经用战机轰炸理塘长青春科尔寺的政权不是藏人的祖国，那个曾经在用机枪坦克血洗北京街头的政权不是中国人的祖国，那个元首家族的资金已经离案到巴拿马的政权甚至不是独裁者自己的祖国。中国学生会捍卫的不是任何人的祖国，而是一个多次分裂中国并殖民了西藏，不属于任何国家的武装团体。

作为七年前在中国因政治异议险些入狱的学生，我来到美国才享有可以直抒胸憶远离恐惧的自由，尽管赞美专制的新总统和他周围的仇恨人士正威胁着这种自由。在中国，大学生赵华旭神秘消失，九零后黄文勋被判重刑，我的朋友, 直言不讳反对中共的ISU毕业生权平，这时候正在吉林的看守所中等待法西斯的审判。这个国家最敢言的年轻人，不是在监狱中，就是在通往监狱的路上。

UCSD中国学生会定期向外国领事馆汇报，向一个外国政府密告学校的一次演讲，并发誓用”强硬手段”破坏达赖喇嘛尊者的访问，这表明他们完全不是自称的非政治性学生团体，而是一个外国极权政府输出言论审查的工具。同时，这也是一个相当危险的信号: 大洋彼岸的那只罪恶之手已经通过留学生伸到美国，正在破坏作为立国基石的可贵的自由价值。

Yi Sulaiman Gu is a member of the Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars and a student at the University of Georgia.

The positions stated here do not necessarily represent the opinions of The Triton, any of its members, or any of its affiliates.

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